Soft cover

Wow, what a quiet blog!

Life has once again eaten all (or at least, most) precious gaming time.

But I have been playing some solitaire Tales of Blades and Heroes (the RPG version of Song of Blades and Heroes from Ganesha games). Hopefully I will have chance to post an After Action Report from that session soon. And I have been able to create a couple of bushes, to be used as soft cover in Song of Blades and Heroes. See photo below (15mm orc for size reference).

Hope spring will offer more gaming time. I really need that.

Rory's Story Cubes: Voyages

I couldn't resist the new set of Rory's Story Cubes - Voyages!

I have the two other sets (original+actions), and when I first found out about this new set at the SoloNexus blog two weeks ago, I knew I had to have it! I love those dice, they are really good for inspiration. Voyages is perfect for the fantasy genre, as many pictures are fantasy/medieval influenced.

I got the new set by mail today, a perfect way of celebrating the upcoming weekend! =)

Trees!

Last week, my eldest daughter came home from kindergarten with a plastic bag full of tree cones. She had found them in the woods when the children were out there playing. She offered me to have some of them. First I didn't see a need for them. But later that evening I started to think in game terms, more specifically, in miniature terms. I thought to myself, they would be really good as trees!

Now, a week later, I have completed thirteen of them, and I'm very pleased with the result. Okay, I know, they do not look like real trees should. But hey, they are for my Song of Blades and Heroes setting, and since we are talking fantasy, more or less anything is allowed!

Okay, here are two photos of the final products, with a 15mm orc lurking in the woods for reference:

And here are a couple of work-in-progress photos:

Found a box of washers in the garage. Good
enough as bases for the trees.

The first cone attached to a washer/base.
Used spackling paste and some stone
glue to build a little foundation for attaching
the cones.

All cones attached to one washer each! Next they
were all coated in Chaos Black and then painted.

AAR: The depressing battle of Björnåsen.

"I have a no good feeling, sir", said the hardened soldier in the heavy armor. The young noble kept silent, but nodded deliberately. With the wastelands in front of their eyes, the soldier's feeling would prove to be correct. The party would, in just a few minutes, meet what mortals call death.


INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the first AAR (After Action Report) on this blog! The game played was a solitaire session of Song of Blades and Heroes, using my solitaire module SBH-SOLO (downloadable here for anyone interested in trying it out).

I was leading a gang of cautious humans passing through the wastelands of Björnåsen, located around five thousand steps South of the large town of Borås. Five civilians equipped with swords and bows, escorted by three armored soldiers, were on their way back home to their manor in Kinnarumma. They've been visiting the King of East Borås for a couple of considerable matters. Halfway home, their journey was interrupted when they ran into a group of bestial green-skinned creatures -- eight bloodthirsty orcs. The battle was an actuality, and it did not end in favor of the humans; all men lost, except for one rider, escaping the battle in fear of his life.


BATTLE INFORMATION

Human warband
* Young noble, with sword, [PTS=50; Q=3+; C=2] and [Leader].
* (x2) Young noble's close friends, with swords and [PTS=30; Q=3+; C=3].
* Young noble's brother-in-law, on horse, with bow, [PTS=60; Q=3+; C=2] and [Mounted; Long Move; Shooter (med)].
* Young noble's cousin, on horse, with bow, [PTS=45; Q=4+; C=2] and [Mounted; Long Move; Shooter (med)].
* (x3) Armored soldiers, with swords, [PTS=26; Q=4+; C=4] and [Short Move].
=> 293 PTS

Orc warband
This warband was entirely controlled by SBH-SOLO, i.e. my imaginary opponent.
* Orc leader, hand weapon, armor, [PTS=100; Q=3+; C=4] and [Leader; Tough].
* Orc warrior, hand weapon, armor, [PTS=42; Q=4+; C=3] and [Long Move; Steadfast].
* (x6) Orc warriors, hand weapons, armor and [PTS=23; Q=4+; C=3].
=> 280 PTS

The game was played using 15mm miniatures, on a 60x60 cm board, with a few pieces of terrain (mix of self-made ones and a few Games Workshop hedges). The board was crafted and given to me in Christmas present by my father. He used an old green billiards rug and attached it to a wooden board! Looking really good and very steady! Extremely grateful for that piece! =)

The game was played over two evenings and ended after 12 turns. Or actually, the battle never ended, one last human, the young noble's cousin on horse, fled when he was the only survivor. (He did not flee by the terms of Song of Blades and Heroes rules, but I made him flee, since there was no idea of continuing the fight with just him on the board, and four orcs! Who wouldn't have left the action by then!)

I had a lot of fun playing this battle! I think the SBH-SOLO module did a good job in simulating a real live opponent. Found some minor problems in the SBH-SOLO rules that I will correct, but apart from that, the game ran smoothly. I will definitely run a similar session again soon. Will have to paint a few more 15mm fantasy miniatures first though, so the variety of miniatures increases.


BATTLE HIGHLIGHTS

I will here present a number of highlights from the battle, in the shape of photos. I will not go through the battle in detail, just present a few distinctive moments.

The wastelands of Björnåsen. The humans in the lower
part of the photo, and the orcs in the upper. They have
just spotted each other, and the fight is ineluctable.

Turn #3: The young noble's cousin rides up on a small cliff
and fires his bow. He makes the closest orc temporary
drop his weapon to the ground and lose his balance.

Turn #4: The human warband fumbles and loses one turn.
In game terms; two failures on the first activation
roll attempt made in that turn! Seldom a good start of
a turn... ;-)

Turn #8: Two orcs charge a human rider. Later, in the
human part of this turn, the rider leaves the hand-to-hand
combat using the Free Disengage a mounted model is
entitled to if it disengage a foot model. Lucky him!

Turn #8: One of the noble's close friends attacks one of the
orcs charging into the rider previously in this turn. He succeed
in making the orc fall to the ground!

Turn #9: The fallen orc from the preceding turn is killed!
Unfortunately, the human is soon to be killed too...

Turn #9: The armored soldier slays one of the ugly
creatures, even though he is surrounded by two
more of them. Good work!

Turn #10: The fourth orc is killed and the remainder of the orc
warband must perform a Morale check (since the warband
was reduced to half in size). Three of the orcs runs off
toward the board edges. The one in the photo stops just
a few centimeters from the edge!

Turn #12: End of game! The last remaining human is seen
in the lower right of the photo. He is desperately leaving
the battlefield. Four orcs watch him leave in panic, while
they dismissively laugh...

Figure painting: Three dismounted men at arms

Slow painting progress. Really slow. Blaming overtime at work. Been quite a lot. But it is about to decrease really soon though, so life should retain back to normal (whatever that is!).

Anyway, managed to complete three dismounted men at arms recently. Although minor progress, I'm happy with the result!

They are all 15mm Chariot Miniatures (obtained from Magister Militum [YLT3]).

Built a painting station!

Wow, more than two weeks since last blog post. Not good. Not entirely sure why, but there has been quite a lot of overtime lately. However, things will get better (i.e. less work) in a few weeks.

Despite overall bad gaming related progress, I have actually managed to do something :  I have built my own painting station!

And here it is:

I woke up Sunday morning last week and said to myself -- "I'm going to build a painting station today" -- and so I did! During breakfast I did some quick drawings and came up with some rough measurement estimates. After finishing the breakfast, I went out in the yard and started to build. A few hours later, it was completed (except for the black paint, that I applied a day later). And today I added an old lamp I found in a since-long-forgotten moving box.

Even though the station is not a beauty (never was the intention), I'm very pleased with the result. The reasons for building one in the first place, are these:

1. I usually paint minitaures and build terrain in our attic. During winter, especially when there are outdoor temperatures down at minus 15-20C, it gets quite cold up there. In other words, a not so nice environment to sit for a few hours and paint. Even hesitate to go up there sometimes.
2. I feel very anti-social being up at the attic, alone, for a few hours painting. Now, with the painting station, I can bring down the work to e.g. the living room. Paint while watching TV with my spouse! Very convenient! =)

Here are two more photos (work in progress):

Work in progress. Just started. Built the painting
station out of an old IKEA cabinet.

Work in progress. Before black paint.

States of Siege - the solitaire engine from Victory Point Games

Victory Point Games has a solitaire engine called States of Siege. They use it in many of their solitaire tabletop board games.

One of those games is Empires in America which I have had in my possession for a few years, but not really played it much - not until now. Below is a brief review of Empires in America.


Empires in America - brief review

Background

The game in action! I later won this game!

The game is about the French and Indian War (1754-62). The solitaire player controls the French, and must defend Montreal from the British forces slowly closing in from several directions. And that is actually what the States of Siege engine is all about - an enemy closing in from several directions, at the same time, and the player must do everything it takes to stop him, usually with a scarce number of countermeasures at hand.

Components
As with Victory Point Games, they are hand made. Cards/counters/maps/etc are printed and cut by hand. Might put a few off, others won't care. I must say that I actually like the idea of components crafted in this genuine manner - you can feel the love put into it. Everything is carefully and nicely packaged. And regarding the art -  I think it is colorful and attractive - no complaints there.

Gameplay
The rulebook takes a few readings before nailing the rules - especially the card locations. A card can be in one of seven different places (e.g. your hand, removed, discarded, bottomed etc). A little confusing at first, but something that you get used to after a few plays. Apart from that, the rulebook is very nicely laid out, and easy to navigate.

Gameplay is fun! And tense. You have a lot of decision making to do. The game is quite hard to beat. It is extremely frustrating to see all the British forces closing in on Montreal from all directions, but having so little space of maneuvering, so you can't stop them all.

The game rules are of low complexity. Game play is around 30-45 min.

The good
* Fun and engaging. A lot of decision making.
* High replayability. There is a big randomness around the pile of cards drawn. And since the cards drive the game, game play will look differently each time playing. A very good thing.
* Nice looking art.
* Very clear rulebook.
* Small footprint, and good when traveling - light and small in size!

The bad
* A minor complaint: There is a rule saying that if the British has two or more Leaders (haven't brought Leaders up in this review, but basically, they are a good thing and you need them!) than the French has (when starting the British phase), and a similar rule saying that if the French has two or more Leaders than the British has (when starting the French phase), then Leaders must be sacked, so that the gap in power between the two nations won't get too big. I don't like those kind of rules. I don't like it when the game system prevents one player to get too strong by comparing to the other player's power. Such power regulations should be handled by other means, within the system itself. It's hard to connect such action historically, or into the real world. Why would a winning, more powerful side of a conflict reduce its power because of the other side being weak - that is a great opportunity for offensive actions!

Conclusion
Despite the minor complaint, the game is excellent! I love it! And I would recommend it to any solitaire wargamer. I cannot compare it other games in the States of Siege series, since this is the only game I own in that series. But that is about to change... see below!


States of Siege - future (from my point of view)

* GMT Games and Victory Point Games has a strategic partnership, meaning that GMT releases some VPG games. Currently on GMT's P500 (pre-order) list, there is a game called Revolt and Revolution, which is three States of Siege games in one box! And with GMT's fine quality, mounted boards etc, this can't be bad! I have signed up on that one. I really hope it collects enough pre-orders to be published.

* Levee en Masse, which is a States of Siege game, will be developed for Android/iOS. I found the news here (The Gaming Gang) and here (BoardGameGeek). I'm an Android user, so this is wonderful news!

So, this means, more States of Siege for me in the future! Hopefully, at least one of the above products will be in my hands during 2012. Can't wait!